Story/characters are lower on my priority list when it comes to RPGs, so I actually enjoyed it for the most part. Combat was fun and the game was pretty to look at. Sidequests/marks just sucked... after the 40th mark or so, I realized I wasn't having any fun finding them, went ahead and beat the game, and shelfed it away forever.

I hated nearly every second of it. Boring otaku bait narrative, unlikeable cast of cunts (except Sahz, he was pretty great), ten thousand miles of dull corridors, reliance on a database to make sense out of the shit unfolding before you, and so and so and so on. I played it up to the point everyone was saying "Sure, all you have to do to get through most of the game is push up on your controller, but it eventually OPENS UP," and that great bastion of open space MIGHT have been as big as the Calm Lands in FFX. I said fuck it and shelved it. :P

Battle system was fun, but not so much that it was worth sitting through all that bullshit.

I hated nearly every second of it. Boring otaku bait narrative, unlikeable cast of cunts (except Sahz, he was pretty great), ten thousand miles of dull corridors, reliance on a database to make sense out of the shit unfolding before you, and so and so and so on. I played it up to the point everyone was saying "Sure, all you have to do to get through most of the game is push up on your controller, but it eventually OPENS UP," and that great bastion of open space MIGHT have been as big as the Calm Lands in FFX. I said fuck it and shelved it. :P

Battle system was fun, but not so much that it was worth sitting through all that bullshit.

I had a very similar sentiment, was "ok" with the game for the first 20 hours. Hated it by the 50th and couldn't bring myself to beat it.

I hated nearly every second of it. Boring otaku bait narrative, unlikeable cast of cunts (except Sahz, he was pretty great), ten thousand miles of dull corridors, reliance on a database to make sense out of the shit unfolding before you, and so and so and so on. I played it up to the point everyone was saying "Sure, all you have to do to get through most of the game is push up on your controller, but it eventually OPENS UP," and that great bastion of open space MIGHT have been as big as the Calm Lands in FFX. I said fuck it and shelved it. :P

Battle system was fun, but not so much that it was worth sitting through all that bullshit.

Even those Calm Lands aren't really as advertised to the point that I'd say they were more like DQ1's Alefgard instead. Because once you get there the only things that won't end you are slimes and small critters until you've leveled enough to cross a bridge into the next level of encounter zone. The Gran Pulse experience basically devolves into running from hunt to hunt until they lead you out of there because the game's disguising the fact that all you're really doing is powerleveling your party so that everybody can have their five segmented ATB gauge and their third accessory slot by having you run from one hunt destination to another while fighting everything along the way (which is conveniently lined with encounters that you can handle for a reasonable gain of CP for when you're expected to run down through those areas).

Im really surprise that a lot of people enjoyed the battle system.. please tell me what was so fun about it? I really want to know because honestly autobattle must be the most stupid thing to ever happen in a RPG.

Oh and now dont tell me that I can play without it, because, well, im aware of that fact. The thing is, the way the battle system is made, if you don't use it, its a mess and annoying to play because everything is too fast.

Im really surprise that a lot of people enjoyed the battle system.. please tell me what was so fun about it? I really want to know because honestly autobattle must be the most stupid thing to ever happen in a RPG.

Oh and now dont tell me that I can play without it, because, well, im aware of that fact. The thing is, the way the battle system is made, if you don't use it, its a mess and annoying to play because everything is too fast.

The battle system in XIII gets rid of making the grinding boring, after hours into the game no one wants to fight the same enemy that you have fought more than 200 times for too long.

They could do the thing of making the monsters leveling up with you but that can give more troubles in the long run. Also this particular version of the ATB in XIII is at it's best in big battles where your enemies have high HP and use buff and debuffs all over the place which make you move and think faster. Lot's of fun with battles like those.

The only big problem with it is that the tutorial to introduce this battle system took waaay too long and when you reached the point to use it for reals many people didn't care for it because the story or characters got tiresome and boring to follow.

After all, everyone that has played XIII has come out hating with passion at least one character.

... Well, to be fair that's just for getting all trophies and crap, it's far from necessary to beat the game nor do you even need to go all out for it to complete all the marks. BUT THEN few RPGs in the last several years even have the kind of grind you describe, unless you're counting regular dungeon crawling which... well, FFXIII is just as "guilty" of.